The Auswine Forum

Hi everyone, first time poster, long time reader.
I have been collecting and enjoying wine for 15+ yrs now, but only recently started to enjoy some wines from the Napa Valley in California.
I have been lucky enough to get on some pretty awesome mailing lists but didnt realise that the wineries didnt ship internationally, and only within the US.
My question is how do you get it into Australia? Do you use a private courier to pick up from the winery? Do you use a US mail address and then ship it that way? Costs involoved etc...Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated in regard to this.

Also, what happens when it gets here? Do customs hold it until you pay the WET?

Thanks again
COH.

First you got to ask if worth paying the Customs Duty (5% of Customs Value) + Wine Equalisation Tax (WET @ 29%) + Goods and Services Tax (GST @ 10%!)

Gotta love all the taxes here!

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page5549.asp (scroll down see "example no.2 for low value wine of $400, it's like extra $227.40 of duty/taxes on top!)

Sorry unable to help about getting it re-shipped via Napa, no idea.

But I have received some spirits and wines as single bottle alone from friends and relatives overseas, they are marked as "gift"...never had to pay those duty taxes and that crap, but that was couple years ago, not sure about now.

Thanks Damon, I just checked out the example 2, and they certainly dont miss you with the taxes here.
I just bought 2 bottles of the M.Etain from Scarecrow winery (which I love) and I am now slightly concerned as to the total per bottle price after all these taxes and freight etc.

Bit of a lottery, for smaller deliveries of less than 4 bottles they'll usually go straight through from my experience.

coh wrote: I am now slightly concerned as to the total per bottle price after all these taxes and freight etc.

sometimes we just can't put price on our personal enjoyments, if you just "switch off" your mind about the cost, just see it as number on credit card/money coming out of the wallet, and if the wine turns out great at the time of opening, if you have good company, good times, loved the wine, good timing, you can't put price on that enjoyment, life's too short! Might help if you think that way if you really love those Napa wines.

I don't think that the size of the shipment is a factor. I've paid duty on 2 bottles coming I from the US.

I think the more prevalent factor is how obvious it is that the sender is dispatching wine. Buying as I have from any company with "Winexxxx" in their name means you'll pay duty every time. I think I need to find a wine e-tailer that sells 'antique beverages' and is named Bloggs & Bros.

-- George Krashos

Thanks George...when you have previously ordered from the us, did you buy direct from a winery? If so, how did you arrange delivery here to Australia as I'm yet to find a winery that ships directly here.
Thanks

Australia is the worst country in the world to get wine into. Be prepared to be hit with exorbitant taxes.

I haven't bought any wine from wineries in the US. To be honest, I've bought French wine from the US because it is still a solid 40% cheaper (even with the tax hit) for the same wine here in good old Aussie.

-- George Krashos

burgster wrote:Australia is the worst country in the world to get wine into. Be prepared to be hit with exorbitant taxes.

Not far off the mark. If you exceed the duty free allowance in Australia you are liable to pay taxes on the entire amount, INCLUDING the stuff you thought was duty free! In Canada you pay duty only on the wine that exceeds the duty free allowance.

Let me tell you of my last experience where I came home to Edmonton, Alberta where we have the lowest taxes in Canada by way of a flat tax of about $4.50 per bottle. My partner and I declared 3 bottles of 750 ml Single Malts as our duty free allowance (1.14 litres x 2 = 2.28) and 4 and a half bottles of wine. We were prepared to pay about $20 for the wine ($4.5 x 4.5). It may have been that we had been out of the country for about 11 months but the lady at Customs said "I won't be sending you to the cashier, welcome back to Canada".

Lovely, polite and civilized.

Cheers............................Mahmoud.

Hi everyone,
I thought i would update you all on the dramas and costings of gettig these 2 bottles from Napa to Sydney. This process was unbelievable, not only costly, but just ridiculous in the hoops needed to jump through.

Anyway....bear with me

2 bottles M.Etain from Scarecrow winery $125 each, $250 total.
duty and delivery to storage facility in L.A. $50
The initial delivery mode i chose was TNT at $70, I was then told TNT didnt deliver alcohol O/S, and I would need to send via DHL which was $105, plus would require further packaging ($8.50) and photos taken of the products ($5) unwrapped.
Finally got here to Sydney and got a lovely phonecall from customs telling me the total cost to get it to my door was $175.50

Total bill $593.50 for 2 bottles of wine (ave approx $300 each).

This country is an effing joke with its taxes etc....unfortunatly that will be the last time I do that again.
Lets hope these wines are amazing
If anyone knows a cheaper way of doing it, Im all ears.

cheers guys

This is why Aussie importers get a bad wrap... People ask why a $125 bottle costs $300 here and blame the importers Imagine trying to run a small import business and still try to turn a profit.

It's the government - both sides. Wholesale Sales Tax on Wine (WST), WET, all the same thing. As part of GST implementation they replaced the 41% WST with 29% WET, times another 10% GST (cumulative - therefore add another 10% of the 29% = 2.9%, adding up to 41.9%). GST implementation was just rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic.

I find the following link a useful reminder of duty/WET calculations:

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page5549.asp#Calculating

Each time I come into Australia, I bring 2 to 3 dozen bottles from France. Once you allow for import duty, then WET, then GST, on a cumulative basis, the tax is 49% of the AUD value, assuming you have receipts (if not, they use Aussie prices as a basis - which makes it nearly 100% on what I paid).

Cheers

Mike

odyssey wrote:This is why Aussie importers get a bad wrap... People ask why a $125 bottle costs $300 here and blame the importers Imagine trying to run a small import business and still try to turn a profit.

It's the government - both sides. Wholesale Sales Tax on Wine (WST), WET, all the same thing. As part of GST implementation they replaced the 41% WST with 29% WET, times another 10% GST (cumulative - therefore add another 10% of the 29% = 2.9%, adding up to 41.9%). GST implementation was just rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic.

I find the following link a useful reminder of duty/WET calculations:

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page5549.asp#Calculating

That doesn't explain the whole thing..I didn't realize they tax you on transport costs? How insane is that? I'm not even sure why that makes any sense...It means the only way it is worthwhile to import is in larger quantities or if you can get a good deal on a climate controlled container going by boat...Aussie protectionism in action...

But the same taxes apply to Australian wines as well.

It's really protecting the cheap booze market, if anything. If they eliminated WET and increased duty across the board for Wine, purely based solely on Alcohol content By Volume, then premium wine prices would plummet whilst cheap/cask wines would double in price.

If the govt were serious about reducing alcoholism they would switch to ABV taxing on wine, but that would be political suicide in "battler" electorates. Imagine how the trash tabloids - Daily Telegraph/Courier Mail/HeraldSun/News.com.au - and other Limited News publications - would spin that. "Government to double taxes on battler booze" "Government steals from the poor and gives to the rich"...

It applies the tax but the transport costs are different and since WET applies to that, you can see how it prevents people from importing smaller quantities...whereas that is not a significant cost when it comes to local wine.

Not to mention WET is applied on the wholesale value or 50% of retail...vs. bringing it in I have no idea how the calculate it..on the OP's wine it was for the full retail value..

Also, Australian winemakers are able to claim back a significant portion of WET...I mean, really that is what it is for, supposedly, is to protect the smaller winemakers even though they can claim back up to something like 500k.

Lets face it, we're not helping Australian winemakers do anything but compete with themselves...we're making them completely unable to compete internationally...

Globally sells on the high end (Grange, HoG) and on the low end (Rosemount, Yellowtail, etc). On the low end they sell a LOT there is no doubt about that. Australia makes the greatest tasting plonk in the world. In the mid end, they're getting completely thrashed..there are multiple reasons for that..

The fruit bomb crowd has been hurt by the economy...they're no longer spending 50/bottle...they're looking for stuff under 30...Australian Wine doesn't play well in that space right now...
The crowd that will spend more than that thinks Australian stuff is all fruit bombs...and part of that is because that is all that is exported. There are some other things available but that is for people in the know..and the problem is, they're still competing with stuff from France, Italy, Spain, etc...and they're not doing a good job of it. The same reason some Australians will prefer that 100AUD bottle of Bordeaux that costs 40 USD elsewhere vs. a 40-50 AUD Aussie wine..., is the same reason people will prefer that bottle of Bordeaux that costs 40USD vs the Australian wine that costs 40 USD (same bottle of Australian wine as above).
Obviously the strong AUD doesn't help either...

Its just a great thing to enjoy wine in the region from where you importing. and napa is really good place to test some unique wine and learn some unknown things about wine.. so if you are a true wine lover then visit napa once in life.

You are ok bringing in half a doz bottles or so with your personal luggage, regardless of how much they are worth. Customs are quite reasonable face to face.

Its when you send some unaccompanied that you strike the really arrogant ones.

odyssey wrote:But the same taxes apply to Australian wines as well.

Import duty doesn't.....

coh wrote:Hi everyone, first time poster, long time reader.
I have been collecting and enjoying wine for 15+ yrs now, but only recently started to enjoy some wines from the Napa Valley in California.
I have been lucky enough to get on some pretty awesome mailing lists but didnt realise that the wineries didnt ship internationally, and only within the US.
My question is how do you get it into Australia? Do you use a private courier to pick up from the winery? Do you use a US mail address and then ship it that way? Costs involoved etc...Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated in regard to this.

Also, what happens when it gets here? Do customs hold it until you pay the WET?

Thanks again
COH.

Hi,

What wine companies have you been subscribed to in Napa Valley? I know some wine companies there who are willing to ship their precious wines to Australia provided you pay the corresponding shipping fee and all the importing taxes. An example of which is Napa Valley Wine. I think most of the wine companies in US would be willing to make necessary adjustments with international shipping with the right terms and deal.

Another option would be shipping it to a private US address and have an international courier pick it up. I guess this would also be okay given that you will settle the taxes as well.

For your last question, once it gets there, goods including alcohol (wine) amounting to below A$1000 do not require self-assessed clearance. Usually, customs will notify you with the due payment and other instructions for the goods to be released. If it's taking too long, you can always track it, right?

The goods will only be delivered to you upon clearance of due taxes and duties.